{"id":833303,"date":"2026-09-01T18:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T18:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/833303\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T18:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T18:38:09","slug":"us-border-patrol-expected-to-aid-grand-canyon-search-for-missing-person-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/833303\/","title":{"rendered":"US border patrol expected to aid Grand Canyon search for missing person | Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"

A US border patrol technical search team is expected to deploy in the Grand Canyon, as authorities continue the search for at least one missing person after a fatal flash flood<\/a> washed through the national park over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Authorities are rushing to scour the area as more heavy rain and thunderstorms in weather forecasts<\/a> threaten additional debris flows, flash floods or rock falls.<\/p>\n

Nearly 80 people have been rescued since a torrent of water swept through the national park on Saturday, and two people have been confirmed dead. They were identified by their families as chiropractor John Giusti, 46, and martial arts studio owner Brent Rosenkranz, 42, who had been hiking together.<\/p>\n

A third friend who had joined the trip, 53-year-old pilot Timothy Smith, was still missing. The men had been camping at the bottom of the Grand Canyon since Friday.<\/p>\n

A locator map of the flooding in the Grand Canyon<\/a><\/p>\n

Searchers used night vision and other equipment to find people who needed rescuing during the deluge, incident commander Dave Black said during a Monday evening press conference.<\/p>\n

Rangers referred to the park\u2019s permit system and checked vehicle license plates to track the number of missing people. \u201cAs of right now, they have no reason to believe, from the tips we\u2019ve been through so far, that there\u2019s anybody besides the one\u201d missing person, Black said.<\/p>\n

The flood happened deep in the canyon on Bright Angel Creek, which flows into the Colorado River near Phantom Ranch<\/a>. The fabled lodge has been a beacon for half-collapsed, exhausted and overheated hikers for more than a century.<\/p>\n

Hiker Daniel Evans said it had rained several times before the worst 30-minute downpour Saturday afternoon. He had been planning to rest through the hot day and spend the night near the hard-hit Bright Angel campground area.<\/p>\n

Earlier, rangers told him it looked to be safe. Then, as the rain poured, they told him it was time to go.<\/p>\n

People wait near a bridge as a helicopter flies nearby amid flash flooding in the Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona Photograph: Wieke De Boer\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Flash floods are not uncommon in the Grand Canyon. In summer, during the monsoon season, clear days can quickly give way to thunderstorms and heavy downpours. The region\u2019s dry landscape can absorb only a limited amount of water. What might be a normal summer downpour somewhere else can become a charging wall of water in a rocky canyon.<\/p>\n

But this weekend\u2019s flood was probably intensified by a confluence of climate factors, including drought, wildfire scarring and warming temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that can supercharge storms.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s monsoon is especially intense because there is a higher amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, mostly because of a strong El Ni\u00f1o, said A Park Williams, a hydroclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. El Ni\u00f1o is part of a natural cycle, but models show there is a strong likelihood this will become one of the strongest<\/a> on record.<\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o layers on top of spikes in temperature<\/a> fueled by the climate crisis. Scientists have long warned that the climate crisis<\/a> will create stronger extremes<\/a> and destructive shifts between wet and dry conditions. As temperatures continue to climb, extreme events will not just increase \u2013 they will become more likely to overlap.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s strong storm also hit part of the burn scar of the Dragon Bravo wildfire<\/a>, a destructive and fast-moving blaze that swept across nearly 150,000 acres (60,700 hectares) and consumed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge<\/a> in July 2025.<\/p>\n

Runoff tends to flow more quickly in the aftermath of a fire, especially in hotter burns where slopes are left bare of vegetation.<\/p>\n

The flood also damaged the water pipeline that serves visitors and the roughly 1,600 residents of Grand Canyon Village.<\/p>\n

Early assessments showed roughly 40% of the pipeline had been damaged or destroyed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A US border patrol technical search team is expected to deploy in the Grand Canyon, as authorities continue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-833303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}